Day 727 - Hiroshima, Honshu island

Good news…I think this may be a short posting, I don’t’ have that much to write for a change, may be that is why I am starting with a bit of waffle!

We had a late start from Matsuyama, my fault entirely due to a last minute panic as I realised I had some matters from back home that needed to be sorted out before I would next find internet access…who said life on the road is all easy? So after a problematic start to the day things could only get better, they did. We had a really easy route out of Matsuyama, just a case of heading north all on one road and to make matters even better it had a very good cycle path for about the first 20k. It went through a couple of tunnels and through those the cycle path was about as wide as the road with a good surface and good lighting, if only all the tunnels were like that. Once the road reached the coast it became single carriageway without the cycle path, normal service resumed. We stopped for lunch right beside the sea, the weather was in decline, it started to drizzle as we ate our smoked fish. We were back on the road in time to see a dog being walked by its owner, the dog wearing a nappy, made to measure by the look of it. Before long we were on slightly quieter roads heading for an archipelago of islands that we would cross in the next couple of days, all connected by a series of expressway bridges built in 1985. The first one was the biggest, 7.5km in length with 6 towers. The bridge came into sight, all we had to do was try and get on it via the cycle path. We chose the right option and before long we were heading around in circles up a very impressive cycle ramp to join the expressway across the bridge. I would have thought more money had been spent on this one cycle path that on all the cycle paths in the UK put together, but at least this one was heavily used, we saw dozens of cyclists on the track, the first time that we have seen pleasure cyclists in any numbers. The views from the bridge were great but would have been even better if the weather had been a little clearer. After about 5-6km of cycling on the island we were already in the centre and spotted a sign to Rose Garden. We headed there in the hope of finding somewhere to camp but for some reason were really surprised to find that it was….a Rose Garden! I don’t know why, but neither of us expected that. We started to backtrack only to find a small track leading away from the road into a lovely little bamboo wood which made a perfect little campsite for the night.

The forecast for the following day was rain, but we set off to a warm but overcast day. Being a Sunday we expected to see far more cyclists than yesterday, as it happened we saw no more than about 5 the whole day. We crossed to the second island, then followed the well signed route across the 3rd bridge, all very impressive. On the fourth island we took the long route around the island to see the temple of Kosanji (photo). This is a bit of an oddity, created by a former wealthy steel merchant after the death of his mother. The temple was designed by taking aspects from all the best temples around Japan and creating them on his doorstep, then becoming a reverend to enable the structure ‘temple’ status thus freeing it from any taxes. The finished item was all a bit strange and had the feel of an Indian temple rather than anything from Japan. The best part of the whole place was the old house that his mother used to live in with it beautifully manicured gardens. Whilst we were there the rain started, we dashed between the buildings trying to stay dry, we could hardly see the nearby hills. The temple had various stamps place around and if you filled in all the spaces on a sheet of paper they gave you, then you received a free postcard. I was surprised to find that everybody followed it religiously, appropriate in a temple I suppose. It was still raining when we were ready to start cycling again so we took refuge outside a supermarket and had a little snack. It wasn’t going to stop raining and neither of us could eat anymore, we were going to have to move on in the rain. It didn’t take long before we were soaked. We crossed the bridge to the next island and could hardly see any land let alone a decent view. We decided to push on to the 6th island and then just find somewhere to camp, hopefully out of the rain. By the time we were crossing the bridge it had stopped raining, we were getting an ever improving view and even beginning to enjoy the cycling again. We passed a reasonable spot to camp right beside the sea but decided we would find something more secluded, though in reality we started to enter a built up area that turned into a town, none of which was marked on the maps. Camping wasn’t looking great, I was getting my ear chewed off by Christine who wanted to return the 5km or so to the spot we had seen by the sea, though I was reluctant to return into a head wind, we were late enough as it was. Luck was on my side, we made for the hills, turned down a track I had spotted that climbed a little, then came to an end. Climbing up a steep bank by taking one bike at a time and both of us pushing we made it to the top and a nice secluded little wood, and quiet enough for Christine to calm down again.

Come morning within a couple of kilometres we were crossing the last of the 7 bridges, all as impressive or bigger than the Severn Bridge back home. The logistics of creating such an expressway are incredible, it was very impressive and made for a truly great ride. We arrived in the small town of Onomichi, another town packed with over 25 temples. We saw people walking around them all, collecting a stamp at each one, they are rubber stamp crazy here. We visited a temple high up the hill giving us great views of the last bridge we had crossed. Cycling along the coast wasn’t fun, though we hadn’t expected it to be, too much traffic, too much urban sprawl, what a mess! After Yasuura we turned on to what we had expected to be a back road, but it wasn’t, though it was at least a little quieter. We were climbing too. After a while we decided we really ought to start looking for a place to camp, so we soon turned off and rode through some terraced fields. People were working in the fields so we asked one for permission to camp. We were turned down, but we weren’t sure if he had understood us. Around the corner we asked a woman for permission, so she went off to speak to her friends. Judging by all of the pointing up the hill things were looking pretty good. I could tell by her body language as she returned that indeed all as well, though I was really surprised to find that we were being allowed to camp on an unused terrace down the hill, not up it. To make matters worse she didn’t want us to take the bikes across, so we left them in a shed and walked along the terrace edge with a 4m drop on one side carrying all our baggage, it took 2 trips. We could see them all up the hill having a little natter about us, then another woman turned up and seemed to be indicating that we should look at her house, so back we went along the edge of the terrace, my sense of balance already improving. We followed her to her house where she seemed to have the Japanese equivalent of a Granny flat that she said we could stay in, a delightful little place complete with a lovely tatami room, typically Japanese. Another two journeys of balancing along the terrace edges and we were riding to the house. Surprisingly, when we arrived she told us that she and her husband were going elsewhere for the night and would return at 9am the following morning, we had the place to ourselves, very trusting. So all was well….or was it? Actually, no it wasn’t. We were right beside the road and Christine can not stand the slightest noise, I could see that she was very worked up and hardly knowing what to do with herself. My comments that the road would quieten down at night did little to console her, “There is no way I will sleep, and if I do I will be woken by every car that passes”. Once we had finished dinner, and as I wrote my diary she lay on the floor and put earplugs in to see just how bad it was going to be. Minutes later she was sound asleep, cars passed and she didn’t stir, I could here her breathing heavily as she slept. I left her in peace but when she eventually woke she was off again “There is no way I am going to be able to sleep through this, every car wakes me up”. I think she found it hard to believe it when I told how well she had been sleeping.

By morning she was a little happier, she had got plenty of sleep though it hadn’t been perfect by any means. The run into Hiroshima was a busy one and involved a couple of minor climbs, though that is hardly an oddity in Japan, there isn’t a lot of flat around here. On the way into town we met the first touring cyclist we have met since we have been here, a Japanese guy who had been on the road for 6 months and lives in Tokushima, a town we had passed through a couple of days ago. Once we had sorted out somewhere to live for a couple of nights we went straight to the Peace Memorial Park. First stop was the Museum, a very powerful museum giving a full documented history of before, during and after the fateful day of 6th August 1945 when the first Atom Bomb the world had ever seen was deployed, detonated 600m above the city centre killing thousands of people in seconds. It was one of the most fascinating, moving and sad museums I have visited. There were images and models of before and after the event, hardly a single building remained standing within a 3km radius of the hypocentre and by the end of 1945 140,000 people had died. Hiroshima has turned itself into a Peace City with a large memorial park at its centre and to this day it continues to fight for the end of nuclear weapons. Across from the Peace Memorial Park remains the A-Bomb dome (photo), one of the few buildings that wasn’t totally destroyed and today it stands there as it did after the explosion as a powerful reminder of what happened on that day. We spent a long time in the museum and walked through the park afterwards. We walked in almost total silence, both finding it had to talk after seeing what we had. We ended the evening with philosophical discussion about the ethical questions raised about killing so many people to bring an end to the war, though it is well documented that it could have been stopped without the bombs as Japan had agreed to surrender, they just couldn’t agree on the position of their tenno (emperor).

So today we have visited a mixture of sights. As we rode around the city we could see evidence of little things that had survived the blast, even a tree 1.5km from the hypocentre that had been badly scorched yet was now still growing strongly. We visited a contemporary art museum, one of the worst museums I have ever visited. I tend to struggle a bit with modern art, though even by the end of the one Christine said “I can’t find anything good about this place, it is terrible”. It was all the work of a single artist, or at least that is what he called himself. I reached a work entitled “Oneness in paper (No.323)”. It was a large piece of paper with a large whole torn out of the middle, then that piece had been torn up and placed back sort of randomly. It wasn’t even framed, it wasn’t worth the money or effort to be honest. If I had seen that on its own I probably would have stood there and scratched my head for a while, but after I had just walked past the other 322 of the things it was wearing a little thin. By about No. 350 he had advanced to the use of a 3rd colour, the guy was a nutter. He then advanced to 5,000 works entitled “Point”, though I certainly couldn’t see the point! Then one Christmas some plonker gave him a roll of tape! Now there were 5,000 works called “Tape” and guess what, they were pieces of paper torn in half and taped back together, though for some strange reason he forgot to throw them away at the end of it. Actually I have just had a thought….the guy isn’t a nutter at all, he is a genius. As we cycle around we have a constant problem of finding a rubbish bin, there are none anywhere. He has obviously got around the problem by hanging up his litter on the walls of an art museum…what a guy! I don’t usually fill in questionnaires, but I did about the museum. The place was massive and employed a lot of staff, yet other than us nobody was there. I asked them if they could work out why? Another art museum was vastly better, it even had Dali’s floppy clocks in there. We ended the day in sombre mood again having visited a memorial to the victims of the bombing.

But Hiroshima has shown what a great spirit the people here have. From the ashes has grown a big city that is still coming to terms with what happened on that day at 8:15am. But as we ride around it now looks like any other Japanese city, yet at the time of the blast it was said that nothing would grow there for 75 years. The city has made a big impression on me, it is something I will never forget.

Day 723 - Matasuyama, Shikoku island

Well, I was after a cultural change by coming to Japan, but how on earth am I going to manage to put that all into writing in the short space of time I have here?

We enjoyed our all too short stay in Osaka, in fact we tried to stay another night, but we had arrived in Japan in the middle of Golden Week, their main holiday period and everywhere was fully booked, even the hostel we had been staying in could only take us for the two nights we had already been there, so we had to move on. Golden Week had its advantages though, one being that it made it very quiet on the roads on the Monday morning that we set out. We were armed with the best English written maps of Japan that we could find, but even that was going to be way insufficient for find our way out of a big city like Osaka, so we decided to head in a general direction by following the compass until we reach route 310. It worked very well most of the time, we were on tiny little streets through quiet suburbs to the extent that I was amazed at how far we went without even seeing a main road let alone the 310. I kept a close eye on the compass and at one point we were on the biggest road we could find as I watched the needle swing around until we were heading back the way we came, then carried on swinging around until we had completed a full circle. On the second lap we took the first turning that looked of any reasonable size and before long I was amazed to find ourselves staring at a signpost that directed us to the 310. We were then heading out on the main road to Kawachinagano, it was very narrow and reasonably busy, though traffic stuck behind us was very patient and always gave us plenty of room. So far here in Japan the drivers have been courteous the whole time, aggressive or inpatient driving just doesn’t seem to be a part of daily life here, vehicles always wait and then give you plenty of room when you pass making even the busiest of roads bearable. We arrived in Kawachinagano to Christine’s comment of “We can’t be there already! I read on a website that it was pleasantly rural, we haven’t left the suburbs of Osaka yet”. She was already getting worried about the possibilities of finding a campsite despite the fact that we had at least another 3 hours of cycling ahead of us. We could already see the hills we had to cross to reach the next town of Hashimoto, so before long we were climbing through woodland and passing through a series of 3 tunnels. Tunnels are another daily feature of cycling in Japan. In truth they are not that bad and with Japanese drivers they are about as safe as tunnels could ever be, though I never feel entirely happy in them. They always give the length of the tunnel at the entrance, a nice gesture that lets you work out how much longer you have left to live! We passed through Hashimoto and started looking for the mountain road to Koyasan. We struggled to find the right road so stopped to have a check of the map and were immediately joined by a local cyclist who introduced himself to us as Roy from San Francisco who had been living here with his Japanese wife for the last 16 years. Before long we were being invited back to his house for the night which was only a little off route. Back at his large house we were introduced to his wife Kaz, their 2 sons and their dog. This was better than we could have ever hoped for to be staying in a nice Japanese house on our very first night on the road. Roy and Kaz were wonderful hosts, we had a lovely sociable evening and a great dinner. We were treated to a lovely hot bath, though bathing etiquette here is very different to what we are normally used to. Most houses have a large bath with hot water that remains in the bath for the whole evening so that everybody can use it, so before you get into the bath you have sit down beside and thoroughly scrub yourself down, then shower yourself off and only when you are totally clean can you get in the bath. In reality a bath is just a place to relax, and sooth your aching limbs. They also had a very unusual loo here. It’s all high tech stuff , the loo has two sort of arms making it look a little like an arm chair and on one arm is a control panel that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an aircraft cockpit and controlled the bidet along with the heated seat. When the loo was flushed water came out of a tap on top of the cistern into a small ’sink’ that was built into the cistern lid, the down through the plughole into the cistern itself. It was a clever water saving device with the idea that you wash you hand in the water before it makes it’s way to the cistern, very clever….if you are bright enough to be able to work out what the hell it is for without having to ask! Later in the evening we were talking about Japanese food and the problem we have in the supermarkets, not only with the writing, but also the products that we have not seen before and have no idea what they are. Kaz then offered to take us to the local supermarket and show us around which turned out to be a God send as we learnt so much and she gave us some great ideas for cooking on our little camp stove. It is safe to say that Japan is not the cheapest place in the world, some things are outrageously expensive, but if you buy wisely it can easily be affordable. For example, if you want to eat the same foods as you have back home then you will need to come here with a big fat wallet crammed full of Yen as the likes of a single melon or a jar of honey will be costing you in the region of £20, but buy local products such as noodles, seaweed or a massive selection of fish and it can be very cheap, though surprisingly rice here is pretty expensive compared with back home. It rained a fare bit during the night, we were thankful not to be camping after all.

The following morning was still very overcast as Roy filled us with breakfast before joining us for the first 10km to the start of the long climb to Koyasan. We said our farewells before settling in to the 18km climb, though it wasn’t long before the drizzle started which was all too quickly was resembling rain, so the higher we went the wetter it got as the clouds closed in us making for a very miserable day. To make matters worse the narrow twisting mountain road was very busy, we were getting colder and colder. At last we reached the top and soon after arrived in Koyasan. The first thing we did was to park up behind the public loos and change out of our wet clothes. The public loos here are fantastic, always very clean, decent enough to be in a hotel, usually with heated loo seats, but never with anything to dry your hands with. Once dry we tried to warm ourselves up by making some soup on the stove, before doing a little bit of sightseeing whilst trying to combine it with finding a campsite. The campsite bit wasn’t really working and it was still raining so we went to one of the temples to see if we would be able to camp there. Christine pulled out a piece of paper with the request written in Japanese and a minute later the monk was giving us a map and putting a little circle on it for us. We started to head out of town to where he had marked the map expecting to find an official campsite, though the tourist office had already told us that if we wanted to camp here we had to book at least one month ahead, but when we arrived we were amazed to find a rough piece of ground that would be suitable, how on earth would a monk have know about this place? In the end we climbed a hill on the track beside it and camped amongst the trees in a lovely little spot and by the time we had got there it had even stopped raining.

It rained on and off during the night and was still raining when we set off in the morning, though we were only going back to town as Koyasan is a major tourist attraction and religious site with about 100 temples in a very small town. We decided to visit the large cemetery first, a massive place at the edge of the hillside with tombs that were hundreds of years old. The newer part of the cemetery had corporate memorials for the major companies such as Nissan, Panasonic and the space agency complete with rocket. Some of there had little ‘letterboxes’ for people to leave their cards for their departed colleagues. I can’t imagine Cap Gemini ever having a memorial of any description, they are only too pleased to get rid of you, the last thing they would ever want to do is remember you! At the end of the cemetery was the hall of lanterns containing over 10,000 lanterns, one of which has been said to be burning for over 1,000 years, though being modern day Japan most of them seemed to be electric. Heading back we followed people heading for a shrine like building only to find free tea on offer kept hot in large vats. We made the most of it as we sat out of the rain. There was a line of about 7 or 8 Buddha images that people doused in water. We discovered that they did this in memory of their recently departed, so I did the same in memory of those people that I knew who have died since I have been on this trip. It was still raining as we once again cycled back to the town centre, to make matters worse it was cold too. We visited the other temples and were delighted to find that the entry fee for one included free tea and a biscuit taken on tatami mats in a large open room. By the end of the day it had stopped raining, but we decided to head back to where we had camped the previous evening rather than heading out for 20km or so. By the time we were having our second course of dinner it was raining again and it kept raining the whole night.

By 2am we were camped in the middle of a completely waterlogged area with water seeping in through the ground sheet, but as we were aiming for a 5am departure we stayed put. By 5am it was still raining hard, we stayed put longer. By 10am it had eased somewhat, but the tent was soaked as were the sleeping mats and our clothes from yesterday were still soaking and in a bag. To make matter worse by the time we left it was raining again, the dry clothes we were wearing would soon be added to the wet list. We stopped once again in town to have a bite to eat and sat with a Japanese cyclist which enable Christine to practice some of her Japanese, she did really well, whilst I sat there not understanding more than the occasional word. She had been on an intensive 8 day course before this trip in an attempt to add to the 5 languages she is already fluent in. There was nothing else for it but to head down the mountain in the rain, so with full wet weather gear we were heading off. We had to retrace the first 10km but we were amazed to find the road all but deserted, this being the first day after end of the Golden Week. By the time we reached the bottom the rain had been reduced to showers and it was at least warmer. It wasn’t long before we were changing into our wet clothes in order to dry them as we rode along, we even saw patch of blue sky for the first time since we have been in Japan. We made our way into Wakayama but decided we would miss the ferry to the island of Shikoku, so went to the supermarket to restock. A trip around was a little easier thanks to advice from Kaz, but it still a very slow process as we work out what to cook that is at least a little affordable and nourishing. They are not the greatest bread eaters here, though they do have sliced bread, sliced bread like you have never seen before. For some reason they are always half loaves without crust and come in a choice of either 4, 5 o 6 slices. We tried the 4 slice loaf with a single slice so thick that it is almost impossible to open you mouth wide enough to get it in. We made our way back to a playing field we had passed. As we cross the field it was completely waterlogged from the recent rains, but we were able to tuck ourselves away in the trees and Christine was able to put her new found knowledge of Japanese food to the test and produced another wonderful 3 course dinner. We were amazed to not have any rain at all during the night.

We were also amazed to find that it was starting to rain just as we were setting off the following morning, this wasn’t the time to get another soaking as we headed for a 2 hour ferry crossing. Finding the ferry terminal was pretty easy, though if we hadn’t been able to cross the last possible bridge we had been heading for we would have missed it. Buying the tickets was pretty straight forward, it was obvious what we wanted and we even looked a bit like cyclists, even I could get the gist of the notices just by being able to see the numbers for times and prices. The ferry crossing was great, the deck had very little seating, instead it was a large open area with tatami mats on so you could just take of your shoes and sit or lie down anywhere. We made the most of it by having our second breakfast. Once off the ferry we looked for another supermarket, but what we found was a general type warehouse store, nothing was priced. We kept taking things to the counter and asking ‘Ikura des ka?’, how much is this. They kept writing down 105 Yen, they must have thought we were really thick as everything in the whole store was 105 Yen, but we left happy with a few bargains such as batteries and chopsticks (No, no. Japan is all hi-tech, but the batteries weren’t for the chopsticks!) We headed out of town on the busy road but were soon on much smaller road and passing through villages. Actually, Japan is surprisingly lo-tech at times. Despite being the world leaders in anything electronic down to the multi-function electric loos, we passed two people painting lines on the road using masking tape and spreading the thick yellow paint with hand tools. The contrast continued as you see people working hard in the fields using manual labour, it is all very surprising. We were beginning to find the limitations of the maps we have. It all looked such a simple route to follow, but on the ground it was very different. On the map there were just a few roads with just the main roads being numbered, but once there, there are roads everywhere, the roads we want are usually numbered but we have no idea what number they are supposed to be. We also pass through lots of little towns and villages on roads that appear deserted on the map. So far we haven’t been lost, but I think that is more by luck than judgement. But at least it was now rural, we were passing paddy fields complete with houses in the middle and what’s more the sun was out for the very first time, we were really enjoying the cycling and the environment. After another little bit of main road it was soon time to find somewhere to camp for the night, challenging when all around you is a river and steep hillsides. We headed of down a little side road and soon found some nice little paddy fields, some of them were not being used so we decided where we would like to camp and then went of to the people working in the fields nearby to try and get permission. We did get permission in the end but not until we had long discussion with the ever increasing number of people coming to see what was going on, a telephone call, an offer to sleep in an old garage and finally me taking a photo of our desired location as they couldn’t work out where we were pointing to. So that was where we set up camp, rice fields all around us, above and below, but it had the advantage of having running water, but all the water came at a price….frogs. They make so much noise during the night, all talking or rather shouting at each other during the night. At times there was silence, then one would start and they would all join in, rather like dogs in the UK.

We set off the following morning with a clear blue sky, it was even hot for the first time since we have been in Japan. We made our way to the coastal town of Hiwasa, home of a temple. There is a pilgrimage of 88 temples here on Shikoku and this was on the route and well worth a visit (photo). For the rest of our time here we have regularly seen the pilgrims, known as Henro (photo), walking and cycling along the 1,300km route around the island, though most turn up in cars and coaches, though it makes for a very atmospheric time as they go through their chants at the temples. A little later we came across another temple with tunnels lined on both sides with Buddha images, leading down to the place of worship. Once again we were camped near paddy fields, this time even with a sea view. Little animals rummaged through our rubbish at night, though I never did see what they were.

The following morning we once again set off in beautiful sunshine heading down to the cape on a very quiet main road (photo). It is hard to believe there are 126 million people here as at times the roads are deserted, yet in New Zealand with just 4 million people the roads were always busy. We turned the Cape and started heading north on the west coast. This was the start of a complete change. Despite the map showing the whole route as being deserted there was urban sprawl and industrial buildings the whole way, not very nice. It was so built up that we really struggled to find a place to camp, but after a really hard search we found a very quiet little spot, apart from the frogs, wedges between a road embankment and a paddy field, though only one car passed the whole time that we were there.

Another day of heavy traffic followed, though we did find a great cycle path on a disused railway line which was also on the route for the pilgrims we passed and we photographed more Henro. Christine was once again showing off her skills at locating fruit trees, this time she presented me with fruit that looked a bit like an apricot but neither of us had ever seen before. In wasn’t until we had seen them for sale that we really started to tuck into them in earnest. I think they are locally called Biwa. We were heading into the city of Kochi, where we had lunch in a park beside the castle. All the benches were full of locals eating lunch, but at 1pm the place suddenly emptied as everybody returned to work. I used a drinking fountain nearby, more of a tap pointing vertically up really. I turned it on gently and drank the nice cool water. When I turned it on full and stood back the jet reached 10ft in the air, blimey, the thing would have taken your head off! We did another supermarket run and topped up our supplies. We are getting better at knowing what things are, but it still takes a long time in the supermarket and I still have the ability to stand and look at a whole rack of stuff and have absolutely no idea what in earth it is. But one thing I am learning about food here is that if it looks as though it is something savoury, then it will probably be fish or at least taste of fish, whereas if it looks as though it is sweet, then it will almost certainly be Soya beans that are just disguised in 5,000 different ways. Heading out of the city was once again very busy, but eventually we were turning onto a little road and had the place to ourselves. We had to change our camping style for the night, rice paddies were out, grapefruit orchards were in, though the disused one we were in did give us a little more free food.

The following day provided us with our best cycling day for a long time. We kept off the main route from Kochi to Matsuyama instead heading for a slightly longer route, though still on main roads. Well, at least they looked like main roads on the map, on the ground they were just single track roads with hardly anybody using them. We even passed through villages that seemed to be totally deserted. It was another hot day, added to that we had a long climb beside a river, so when we found access to the river on the way down we stripped off and went for a dip, but by heck it was cold, we didn’t stay in long, but it did make me feel much cooler for the next hour or so. We checked out another temple on the pilgrimage, this time a climb up through the trees on a path well away from the road. Once again the chanting was a delight, we sat down and enjoyed it. We pushed on a little further before finding a little shrine near the road complete with a picnic table, so we made the most of it and camped there. The picnic table was Japanese size, very low, not even I could sit with my legs underneath it properly.

It rained all night, a bit of a surprise as there had been clear blue skies when we had stopped. Christine leapt up suddenly when she head a noise of something close by that might have been going for the rubbish again, but it just turned out to be a large crab trying to get into the tent, a bit of a surprise being so far from the sea and 500m above sea level. Despite a night of rain it hadn’t been of Koyasan proportions, we were totally dry and by the time we set off it had stopped raining. First stop was another temple, second stop was the supermarket. We have been eating miso soup and rice for breakfast, but it just isn’t enough, we both feel hungry and lacking energy an hour later. So we bought food and sat at some benches just beyond the checkout and ate Swiss rolls, one each. As we ate an old lady camp up to us and asked “Are you hungry?” I assumed she was taking the piss and just replied with words to the effect that cyclists are always hungry. A minute later she came back to us and gave us a bag full of sushi and chicken pieces, a really nice gesture. Once she left a younger woman turned up and had a quick chat telling us that she is a Jehovas Witness. She kept bowing the whole time, she bowed so low that I was just waiting for her to topple over and end up in a heap at our feet. We were now back on the main route 33 to Matsuyama, starting with a climb to a pass at 720m, then a great 12km descent with hazy views over the city and the road doing a complete loop and going underneath itself. We easily found our way into town and made for the tourist office where they were unbelievably helpful to the extent that they found us a very cheap room in a hostel, gave s free internet access and even free tea and biscuits while we used it. We assumed at that price the hostel would be a dive, far from it. I was amazed to find that for the price we were right in the city centre down a quiet street and had an apartment style place complete with kitchen and washing machine. The woman running is so friendly too. She arranged for somebody to meet us who spoke English and Christine once again decided a supermarket trip would be the best place to fire off a load of questions. When she heard that Christine liked cooking she suggested she cooked some German food for a group of people who would provide some Japanese food in exchange. So that’s exactly what we did, though finding the ingredients for European food in Japan is rather challenging. We had an evening with a rather annoying American, a Dutch woman and a group of Japanese people. We learnt a bit more about Japanese Buddhism. We have seen so many Buddha images all in rows, many having babies bibs on, or at least that is what it looked like to us. In fact that is exactly what they are, they are put on for a deceased person in the hope that they will be reborn again soon. Just up the road is the district of Dogo, home of the first Japanese Spa, where we will be heading off to shortly. We had a look last night, it’s a lovely large old building surrounded by modern buildings, but I was fascinated to see so many people wandering around in their bath gear, the men carrying little baskets and not looking very macho at all. A bus full of people turned up all wearing the same bath gear, now you wouldn’t see that back home.

So Japan remains a very interesting place to travel around and feels unbelievably safe. Everybody is so courteous and friendly. I don’t even worry about the bike too much, I get the impression crime and anti-social behaviour is very low here. For example, there are vending machines everywhere, even outside a house in the middle of nowhere, but you never see a single one damaged through vandalism. The same goes with the endless mirrors that are on so many of the bends on the roads, they are always spotlessly clean and I have still yet to see one that is broken.

Ok, a bit about the language, though I have to say that everything I have learnt has come through Christine who is very good with languages. Firstly, to speak it seems to be the easy bit, there are quite a few words that originate from English, for example, tentu. The writing is where it really starts to get difficult and confusing. Right, firstly there is the kanji, this is the complicated symbols that I am sure you would recognise. There is one kanji for each word and apparently you need to know about 1,000 kanji to be able to read a newspaper though there are somewhere in the region of 23,000 kanji. Next comes hiragana. This is made up of syllables and there are about 54 of them. These can obviously be grouped together to form words, but one word might have a number of different meaning as apposed to kanji where is can only mean one thing. Hiragana is only used to make up word that originates from Japan. Next comes katakana. This is similar to hiragana in so much that it is syllable based, but this time it can only be used for words that originate from overseas. Lastly there is the roman lettering equivalent. To make matters worse written text can be made up of kanji, hiragana and katakana and be written either across the page or down the page depending on how much space you have to write. To make matters even worse words are constructed by alternate vowels and constanents, you can never have two together unless one of them is an n, and all words end with a vowel or an n. To make thing even worse still the Japanese use the qwerty keyboard on computers that converts it into kanji as you type, so if you type a word with more than one meaning you have to stop and select the correct kanji. It is safe to say that by the time I leave Japan I wont be speaking Japanese fluently!

Finally, as I don’t seem to have much to write about I will include another little exert from Christine’s blog. It’s all about her favourite subject: food.

Eating in Japan

Cooking in Japan is a real adventure and going to the supermarket is usually the highlight of the day for me although it takes me about 1 hour to buy stuff for dinner. When we visited our first supermarket we did not have a clue what to do with about 80% of the stuff there. Now we are down to 30%, but it is still very exotic. And on top of all that we try to buy cheaply. We had some very big surprises about what is cheap and what is expensive. Let’s start with the cheap stuff:
Tofu is ridiculously cheap - a 300 gr slab comes for 25 to 50 cents, about 10% of what it would cost me in Germany. The same goes for bean sprouts, Pak Choy, spring onions, most fish and strangely enough for chicken. My favourite so far is squid. Squid for 2 people sells for about 1 to 2 EUR and is absolutely delicious. Instead of gooey rubber band you get squid that melts in your mouth.

But there is also a lot of expensive stuff: Rice is double the price it is in Europe! And it is the most common food here, but due to import restrictions and/or customer preference they only sell expensive Japanese rice that always seems to end up as a soggy, slimy mess when we cook it. Potatoes and apples are so expensive that they are sold per piece (1 potatoe = 30 cents) and we have seen watermelons for 15 EUR per piece!

But there is also free food: To my big surprise and despite the fact that it is still only spring the fruit trees have been quite rewarding so far. We found a lot of orange and grapefruit trees plus a fruit called Biwa. I have never ever seen it before. It looks like an apricot but has a smooth skin that you have to peel before eating plus 4 bean like stones in eat. A lot of effort to eat them, but they are delicious.

Cooking is quite a challenge here especially because we want to keep expenses down. Dinner is experiment time and we are back to 3 course dinners. Lunch is usually some tempura fish or vegetable from a supermarket and when we are lucky we get discounted sushi (a huge sushi platter for the price of 1 piece of sushi in Germany). But breakfast and snacks are still a problem. We tried Japanese breakfast, e.g. miso soup with tofu plus cold rice with seaweed, but we were both hungry again 1 hour after finishing breakfast. We changed to eating bread (which unfortunately comes presliced: 1 loaf of bread comes in 4 slices only, which means that you have to have a very wide mouth if you want to eat a sandwich) and jam, but this is bulky and not very healthy on the long run. And snacks pose an unsolvable problem. Chocolate comes in 50 gr bars and is outrageously expensive - the same goes for biscuits and chips or crackers. Tiny packages with half of the weight consisting of more packaging material at an outrageous price. Not good for cyclists, but good to help John loose some of the weight he has gained while cycling with me and 3 course dinners every night.

Day 711 - Osaka (Japan)

Wow! What a difference a couple of days make. I was after a cultural change before I hit the USA, Fiji I been my intended destination, but as Christine was heading for Japan it seemed too good an opportunity to miss…so here I am.
We had separate flights as Christine is on an around the world ticket with Air New Zealand and I would save over 300 pounds by going via Gold Coast in Australia with Jetstar, so I departed the day before her. I had boxed the bike up for the first time ever, what a hassle, I hope it is the last time. It made checking in so easy though and before long I was checking in to the Youth Hostel at Gold Coast where I was told I had a room to myself. About an hour later I was told I would be having company and my new room mate duly arrived. “You sound Australian, where have you come from today then?” I asked him “I am an Aussie and today I left the BCC”, “BCC, what’s that?” I asked, “Oh it’s Brisbane Correctional Centre. I left there this morning, spent the afternoon in court and have just been released after 2 months in Prison. I was shit scared the whole time, I was in there with notorious criminals”. Oh great! He seemed harmless enough though, only a lad at 17. “So what have you been up to?” I asked, “Just a bit of this and that, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Later I asked him again and he gave me more information “A mate of mine got into a fight, he only hit the other guy twice but he died, I was put away for being present and not stopping the fight”. He talked non stop, I guess I would if I was on my first night of freedom.

I checked in the following morning looking forward to another swift process, but it just didn’t happen. Once again there had been a big queue behind me but I was the last away by some considerable time. “Where is your visa? You need a visa for Japan unless you have a return ticket?” I was told. “I don’t need one I am British”. They went off and checked and came back and told me I did need one, and sent me to another guy who would sort me out. I told him the same but he just said “Everybody needs a visa”. “No they don’t and entry on a British passport doesn’t” I informed him. “I will just check online for you. Here we are, UK….a visa is required for stays longer than 6 months”, “There you go, that’s great then” I replied “I will only be there 2 or 3 months”, but his only answer was “It must be a mistake. Australians need one so the British must do, they are the same. You are not getting on this flight unless you have an onward ticket. You need to get one using the internet”. Great, I had just over an hour to departure and I had to sort out a ticket. In the end I got a very expensive return flight to Gold Coast on the basis it was fully refundable. I think the problem is that they get fined if people don’t have a visa or an onward ticket, but their passengers are generally Japanese or Aussies and it’s different for the British and many Europeans, we don’t need a visa, we get 90 days on arrival. So now I have more hassle to try and get a full refund and I have only just completed sorting out an Air New Zealand refund a couple of days ago.

And so to Japan and an impressive arrival at Kansai Airport that sits on an island a little bigger than the runway some 50km from Osaka. Everybody seems to be a bit twitchy on Swine Flu, I had to fill in a form. The quarantine queue went down very quickly until I arrived at the front, though I was soon sent elsewhere as I hadn’t put a telephone number down. The rather large but friendly custom official told me to put the name and address of the hotel I was staying at. I wrote YHA Osaka “Oooor, what is the address?”, “I don’t know”, “Ooooor…what is the telephone number?”, “Sorry, don’t know that either”, “Ahhhh, can you check in you guide book then please”, “Sorry, I can’t, I haven’t got a guide book”, HOOOOooooooor, no guide book ha ha ha ha! You can put down your telephone number”, “Nope, I haven‘t got one of those either“. Eventually he gave in and seemed to make up some sort of number himself. I was quickly out, and there standing waiting at the exit was Christine who had arrived an hour earlier and had already worked out how to get off the island as you can’t cycle off, so we were soon heading for a train where the friendly guards helped us to the lift. We were whisked along to Nagoromo station where we got off, found a nice quiet spot and set the bikes up. One problem with bike boxes is getting rid of them, and here there was nowhere to dispose of them, so I just took off the flight tags so that we couldn’t be traced, then we where heading down the road to the Youth Hostel. Oh, and that reminds me. Did I forget to tell you that Christine and I are now married. The Youth Hostel wouldn’t let anybody share a room who weren’t married, so on the train over we quickly made arrangements and we got married in Berlin. Soon we were checked in and off to the supermarket before it closed at 23:00. Once back in the room the phone rang “Hello, this is reception. The train station are on the line and have 2 of your bike boxes, do you want them to keep them for you?” I could hardly believe it, how had they traced us so quickly? “No, no, they are rubbish” I replied “OK, thank you, that is no problem”.

Today we caught a train into the city centre, there were a few things we needed before we set off from Osaka. First of all we needed maps, a road atlas in Japanese and English had been recommended, so after finding out where the book shop was from the info centre we were soon being told they were out of stock, though they sent us to another bookshop and we were relieved to find it. We wandered through the backstreet for the next item, a plug adaptor. Going through the backstreets was just amazing. Whilst Australia and New Zealand were both nice, wandering around the cities wasn’t that great, they were very western. Here it is totally different, to wander through the streets and see everyday life is a fantastic attraction in its own right. The shops that sold items for cooking and serving food were just amazing, there was even a shop that sold nothing but chopsticks, all of them beautiful. We just ambled along, it was brilliant. We arrived at the street that was full of shops selling electrical items, there were dozens of them, and to enter any of them was an assault on the ear drums as music blared out and hawkers shouted out trying to sell their goods. None of them had the adaptor we wanted though. In a city that sold every conceivable electrical item, all made in there own hi-tec country, you can’t get an adaptor! “Try Big Camera, it’s the biggest electrical shop around”, blimey, the one we were in was big enough. He was right though, Big Camera was BIG. Each floor was massive and adaptors were stored on the 5th. They still didn’t have what we wanted but they suggested linking 2 together to do the job. We left happy. We passed gambling halls with more loud music and flashing lights. We went in one, the main machine game was Pachinko, but I just don’t understand it. Ball bearings seemed to pass through a pin-ball like machine and drop out into a tray, then the player scooped out the seeming endless supply and filled large plastic trays which once filled would be stacked up beside them. I have no idea what that was all about. We picked up a gas canister a little more easily, then we were free to do a bit of sightseeing, so we made our way to the castle (photo), apparently the most visited sight on the whole of Japan. On the way we stopped off a a martial art display, then as we arrived we could hear drums beating. Just outside the entrance to the main building there were teams of drummers giving performances (photo). It was completely mesmerising, they did all sort of things, in fact I never realised there were so many way that you could thump a drum with a large stick! The timing was to perfection, a joy to watch, in fact such a joy we just sat there and watched them and never actually made into the castle. We made our way out via a different route and in one of the wide walkways there were rock bands playing, but strangely enough the were all right next to each other so that it all blended into one…what a row! The whole area was full of women, there was hardly a man in sight. Some of the women were really dolled up, to me they looked totally ridiculous, but to them it is fashionable. One of the favourite stiles are shorts or short skirt and long sock way over the knee. Lots of people here wear face masks, I guess that is to save themselves from the pollution, not that it seems that bad, but we saw one guy wearing one pulled down so that he could smoke a cigarette. Doesn’t that rather defeat the object? We made our way home and once again checked out the supermarket. You can never be quite sure what you are buying with everything in Japanese, but the sushi is very cheap and even cheaper when marked at half price in the evening. We have only been here a day, but it has been a great introduction to an intriguing country.

Well I have to say that I am very pleased to be here, I haven’t felt like this when entering a country for a very long time. The people her have all been very friendly despite their lack of English and our lack of Japanese, though Christine has learnt some and is doing very well. They go out of their way to help, always smiling and bowing. There are going to be many sights to see on the way and many strange customs to learn about. Hopefully we are going to be a great journey.

Day 707 - Auckland

I guess you could say that we had a leisurely start the day we departed Rotorua. The first thing we did, even before a cooked breakfast, was to head for the motel’s spa pools. There are two enclosed pools, we decided to go for the cooler one, but when we opened the door the room was completely steamed up. I got as far as putting a foot in it but it was way too hot, we retreated to the “warmer” pool. We later saw the updated temperature of the cool pool, it had reached 49 degrees. By 11:30 we were heading out of town and before long we were riding along State Highway 5 and climbing. It was never steep, but it did drag on somewhat and confirmed what we had read in the museum that Rotorua is actually located in a crater. After a short stop for another bite to eat we were descending fast, almost back to sea level. We turned on to back roads where Christine continued to show her skills in finding anything that might possibly be edible. When I stopped to fill up on water she showed me some lovely looking things that looked a bit like strawberries, though certainly didn’t taste as good. Christine asked the lady in the service station what it was, but despite her asking others what it was she had no idea, though advised us not to eat it. I would have advised that anyway having eaten one of them. We moved on to even quieter roads, though that meant they were also a bit more hilly. At a junction we saw some lads selling feijoas so I stopped and bought some having enquired to what they were and what you had to do to them. We later tried them and they were a very strange fruit though really nice, very zingy. Christine had seen them before and had assumed they were vegetables though a quick chat with the lads and we knew that all we had to do was cut them in half and scoop out the inside. Once again we were in farmland, we would need to ask permission to camp. Just at the time we found a sheltered spot we saw a farmer going into the field opposite, so we followed him in and asked if it was his field “No its not, but you can camp in this field if you like. If you need a shower you can pop over to the house if you like” he replied. “If we can camp here that will be great, and thanks for the shower offer but we only had one this morning, we don’t really need one for another week or so!” The only problem with his field was that it lacked the shelter that we had spotted in the field opposite, but never mind, we had a nice view of the mountains and it was pretty still anyway. A little later the farmer came back for a chat, “We have only just chopped down the trees as they were causing a real problem. It’s really windy here and they kept falling over and damaging the fence.” We settled down for the night. The wind normally drops at night but tonight it couldn’t, there wasn’t really any wind to talk about. So the opposite happened, the wind picked up around midnight and there we were camped in the middle of a field with no shelter at all, the tent was taking a real hammering, it was really difficult to sleep, I lay there trying to decide if I should pack the tent away to avoid any damage to it, some of the bigger gusts were really strong. We stayed put, though when then tent was down I at last felt more relaxed, though I had to take it down very carefully and whilst still pegged down with two pegs to stop it blowing away. It was by far the strongest wind the tent had been exposed to on this trip, but it had come through without any problems at all, I was really pleased with that.

About 30k ahead of us was the little town of Te Aroha, if the worst came to the worst we would stop there and take shelter from the weather. The wind was stronger than I had thought, a side wind that was once again doing it’s best to knock us off the bikes, hardly enjoyable. Amazingly though, within a few kilometres it seemed to have dropped right down, still there, but now much more manageable. It wasn’t long before we were heading out the other side of Te Aroha and on to even smaller roads. It was easy going too, mountains to our right and as we were heading west at times we even occasionally had a bit of a tail wind. The following day was forecast for plenty of rain, so we decide to cover as much ground as possible and not cycle so far tomorrow. We made it back to the coast, a bay, the Firth of Thames, and on towards the little village of Miranda, though we were once again in farmland and by now it was getting dark. We had pushed the limits a little too far, we were really struggling to find anywhere to camp. We wanted shelter from the wind and there were very few trees around, then just as it was almost dark we turned down a track towards a farm and found a gate open into a field and tucked ourselves in by the tree line to get at least a little shelter

.
The alarm went off but I just switched it off and went back to sleep, time to catch up a little on the sleep I missed the previous night. As Christine took out the tent pegs she yelled out and moved away quickly holding her arm. I assumed she had been bitten by some animal, but she had got an electric shock off the fence wires and what’s more it wasn’t even an electric style fence, just an ordinary looking one. As I loaded my bike which was leaning against it, I also got one, though it wasn’t as bad as the shocks I had the previous day whilst crossing a fence to an apple tree. The electric fences here are far stronger than the fences at home, when you get a shock you know about it. Christine yells and runs off looking as though she has been bitten where as I just leap back whilst shouting out a totally uncontrollable “AH FUCK!!” It turned out to be a great little spot to camp, the wind on the tent was unnoticeable during the night but as soon as we started cycling we realised just how well sheltered we had been. We didn’t have far to go, about 3km I think it was. We retraced our way to the thermal spa at Miranda, apparently the largest open spa pool in the southern hemisphere…..whoopee! The plan was to chill out there until the rain had passed over, then once again get as much distance covered as possible and ride into Auckland the next day. The chilling out bit was easy, I am good at that. We kept swapping between the warm pool and the small sauna pool which was a bit too hot really. We decided to have lunch there before we left and went of one of the covered picnic tables, a good move as it was only now starting to rain. By the time we were ready to leave it was raining hard, typical. We hung around as long as possible, then put on full rain gear and set off just as it stopped raining. I supposed we should have been grateful for that but we were now way too hot so it wasn’t long before we had to stop and peel off again. We had stopped at a garage where Christine found some Tamarilla for sale, a strange little fruit that is known as a tree tomato. We bought a load having been given a sample one, though I wasn’t exactly keen on them. We were once again heading into a strong wind but at least we were cycling on a lovely coast road that was almost deserted of all other traffic. Time for another short “Yuk” story. The cyclists reading this will know of the horrible habit we have of clearing out our noses by putting a forefinger against one nostril to block it whilst giving a sharp blow to clear out the other. On this occasion I got it all totally wrong. The wind was blowing as I ejected a large globule from my left nostril. The result was that it didn’t reach the verge as normal, in fact it didn’t go very far at all and I ended up with a large deposit of snot in my left eye! Yuk! I quickly stopped, cycling with snot in one eye is not my idea of fun, but just a few seconds later Christine pulled up alongside me and said “Ooh, great, have you spotted an apple tree?” That girl always has food on her mind. We stopped to pick up some water at a picnic area with loos, a huge grassed area right beside the sea. It was early, but as it was such a nice little spot and even had a little sheltered spot we thought it was too good an opportunity to miss for our last nights camping in New Zealand, we had only just covered 25km! Christine is funny, she found the spot to camp and came back full of enthusiasm, then when we start to set up camp she gets all worried “Are we too close to the road? Will people come into the picnic area and see us? Will people come out from Auckland and start a party?” I am the total opposite, I am often sceptical about the site, but once I have decided to stop there I am always happy. The early stop paid off, just as we had finished cooking and eating it started to rain heavily. I didn’t really mind, we had got away without getting wet on a day that had been forecast to rain all day.

The dawn was reasonably clear, there was even a little blue sky and no wind. The forecast for today was much better than yesterday’s had been. We set off on a very mild morning, still on deserted roads right by the coast. Eventually the road turned inland and started to climb, just at the same time that it started to drizzle. It wasn’t long before we were putting on jackets and what was to follow was what I had expected for yesterday, by far the wettest day we have had in a long long time. Before long we were totally soaked and descents were becoming very tricky. We stopped for a short break in Clevedon under the shelter outside a shop. A woman kindly offered us a camping spot on her lawn and then recommended the long but flatter route in Auckland. We declined that too opting for the quieter, shorter, hillier route into the city, and by heck it was hilly. Soon we were heading up the steepest hill we have cycled up in New Zealand, the rain was still coming down, visibility was very poor and it was just pure misery, steep descents had to be taken very carefully. Christine hates the rain even more than I do. So long as I am warm I find it bearable, but she quickly gets cold and miserable, though in fairness she never complained either. Only the previous day I had spotted a little hole in my map case, today I was now the proud owner of a very soggy map. Once in the suburbs of Auckland it was pretty horrible cycling, busy, fast roads with cars that really didn’t want to share them with cyclists. Bits of Auckland are almost islands so consequently there are only 3 roads in from the south and the one we were on was almost like a motorway, though when it went over a long bridge the shoulder disappeared, traffic constantly honked aggressively at us despite the fact that we had every right to be there, they just weren’t happy at having to negotiate an “unusual” obstacle, it really wasn’t nice I can assure you. We had to stay on that road for a few kilometres until thankfully we crossed the motorway which took most of the traffic leaving us with the quiet old road, the Great South Road. Thankfully it had stopped raining. We did a supermarket run where Christine changed into dry clothes which immediately lifted her spirits, though she found it very strange that I was happy to continue in wet clothes. We bought a kilo of kiwi fruit for just 89c (about 35p), what a bargain. Before long we were in the city centre and booking into the Formule 1 Hotel. There are a few of these in Europe but it is the first I have stayed in. They are normally very basic, but this one was incredibly cheap and came with en-suite and kitchen area, stereo radio, television and a tiny balcony, which gives us great views from our 18th floor room. It rather has the feel of living in a caravan, it’s very cramped, but the square inch of space is used very efficiently.

And so to Auckland. Not the most exciting of cities, but we have a few things to sort out before our departure from New Zealand. Most important for me was getting my visa for USA, I had a visa interview booked for 08:30 just a five minute walk from our hotel. It is not a great introduction to America, you are made to feel a criminal as you are questioned by an arrogant official, “Why didn’t you apply in the UK? Why don’t you have an address of where you are staying? Do you have family at home? How are you going to fund your stay? Why don’t you have a job? Did you cycle through Pakistan? Did you cycle through Iran?” etc, etc. “Ok, your passport will be posted to you in the next few days” I was told. “How long will it take? I have a flight on Friday” I told him, but he just replied with “Your passport will be posted to you in the next few days”…..welcome to America!

Well that was Monday, amazingly enough I was able to pick up my passport from the Post Restante on Tuesday afternoon. Come evening we took advantage of an “All you can eat buffet” at a posh hotel, it was half price as long as your are out by 18:30, a real bargain for just 6 pounds. The choice of food was enormous (as was the pile on my plate), the seafood and desserts delicious, so much of it and very good quality. There was even a soft scoop ice-cream machine. See, I am easily pleased. After dinner I took Christine along to the bell ringing practice at the 8-bell tower just around the corner from where we are staying. They were your typical bunch of ringers including a fair share of “characters”, one was even wearing a t-shirt that I instantly recognised as across the artwork was written “Afraid of the dark Lagerboy”. It was a shirt from the Wychwood brewery in Witney, just 7 miles from where I live. Christine leant across to me and whispered “Get me away from this terrible woman. Half the time I don’t know what she is on about but she is huge and keeps telling me about getting large bras sent out to her in Singapore”. With that in mind I declined the offer to join them for a drink afterwards, I think Christine had just about had enough.

Well, I had not intended to visit New Zealand on this trip, not until all the Aussies had put the idea into my head. I saw many things that I hadn’t seen on my last trip here 9 years ago. I saw much more of the beautiful south island which is more spectacular and remote than the north island, but lacks specific sights and the Maori culture and volcanic activity that is also present on the north island. There are only 4 million people here, but once again it feels much busier than that. The quiet roads are few and far between. The people haven’t been as outgoing and welcoming as I had expected. In that department the Australians beat them hand down. But I have really enjoyed my time hear, as has Christine, and I am very pleased that I made the effort to come here, but it is time to move on. I would highly recommend New Zealand to anybody, yet at the same time I am not sorry to be leaving, who knows, one day I might be back again.

Day 699 - Rotorua

We departed Wellington on the bank holiday Monday after Easter, heading up the west coast to Wanganui….oh joy! Three days of main roads, busy, busy roads, nothing to see apart from a few hills away to our right, it wasn’t exactly fun. Added to that we left heading into a strong headwind, we didn’t even get very far on the first day, making it more challenging to find a place to camp. We passed Queen Elizabeth Park, a National Park of some sort or other. I expected it to be small but Christine thought the road might head all the way down to the coast, so we went in. We found a nice little spot tucked away in the trees, so long as nobody spotted us before 6pm when the park closed we would be alright. We were right, nobody did spot us, only the Park Rangers early the following morning who didn’t even seem to realise we were heading past them and out of the park just after it had opened. There was little to amuse us, we had plenty of time for me to educate Christine in all the facts about Norwich City Football Club and the dire position they find themselves in at the moment. I had talked about Norwich City before in the past, “We are playing Sheffield Wednesday next” I had informed her recently “Oh” she said “what was the score?”, “I don’t know yet do I” I told her but she just replied “Well you have been on the internet, didn’t you see the result?”. “No I didn’t. Despite the internet being a mighty useful tool, at the moment it still can only give the results after the match has been played”. “But you have played them, you told me they played on Wednesday”. Ah! I could now see the problem, a little problem of a slight misunderstanding, a hazard of cycling with a German, but she tries hard, bless her, she now can tell me that we lost to Birmingham Wednesday, but we managed to beat Watfield. So three days of not very exciting cycling, not a good introduction to the north island having had such good scenery on the south island. I only managed to take one photo in those 3 days (photo). It rather reminded us of the first days heading south from Christchurch, though without the interest of cycling in a new and different country. We passed through the town of Bulls where everything was a play on word, for example items were marked as “affordabull”, the social club was “sociabull”, but we also managed to find a bakery that didn’t sell any bread, which was laughabull! The weather was noticeably better than on the south island. When we camped it was much warmer in the evenings and everything left outside during the night was dry in the morning, gone was the overnight dampness. We were back to cycling in sort sleeves and it was even a bit too hot when we sat in the sun to have lunch, though we did pass a couple of cyclists heading the other way covered from head to foot in warm weather gear, perhaps they had just arrived from Australia! On the night we camped just beyond Wanganui there were really strange noises just outside the tent from some sort of animal. I went outside to see what it was but didn’t even see anything scurrying off.


At last we pulled off the main road of to a tiny little road that ran along side a river though it involved far more climbing than we had expected, but most of it was single track road and hardly any traffic. We were now back into good scenery and enjoying it. We stopped for a break just where the road was cut into the side of a hill and about 5m above us in the bank were a mass of mussel shells. There were also other shells lower down that we could reach, they just crumbled in our hands, it was impossible to tell just how long they had been there. Today we seemed to be on a bit of a world tour with the first place of note that we passed through being Athens, it was much smaller than I remembered! For a change we also had a few sights to see down this little back road as we pulled off into the tiny village of Korinti where there was a Marae, the traditional Maori meeting places complete with lovely carvings, though sadly the buildings were all shut. Christine’s skills at locating any tree that has fruit continues to be first class. As I wandered around I had no idea where she had gone until she came back we her hands full of apples. The next stop was a little restored mill that you could go in, nobody was there and it was free to enter, just a little note on the door asking you to shut it when you left. We then passed through London, it wasn’t even marked on my map. Heading out of “suburbia” our slow progress became even slower as the road turned to gravel, in fact it was gravel all the way through to Jerusalem, where we visited the church with a lovely Maori carved wooden alter with a face in the centre that look almost real. Heading out of Jerusalem the road got even worse, the gravel became large, thick and loose, added to that we were once again climbing. Progress was oh so slow, it required 100% concentration just to remain upright and point the bike in vaguely the right direction. We both almost fell at times, it was so tricky, especially on the bends were the steep cambers drew you into the inside of the bend. We finally made it to Pipiriki. There was nothing there, but what a lovely place name. I spotted a camper van coming the other way so I asked him for road information “Have you come from the direction of National Park?“ I asked, National Park being the name of a small town, I knew he had, it was the other route into Pipiriki, “Is the road gravel?“ I asked the elderly man”, “No” he replied, “Really! Is it sealed the rest of the way then?“. “Yes” he told me. Christine wanted to retrace a few hundred metres after we had filled up on water but I made a misjudgement thinking that possibilities lay ahead, they didn’t. We started a long climb, we left the village fields behind, they were replaced by steep sided rain forest and after just 1km we were back on gravel though I knew it wouldn’t last, the old guy had told me there was none. We continued to climb on gravel for about another 4km, it was getting late and cold, things were looking bad when all of a sudden there was an open rough grassy patch, we had finally found home for the night, the only problem was that we were to be camping just 10m away from about 50 bee hives, though when I checked I saw very few bees. We were only about 20m away from the road too, Christine wasn’t overly happy about that “Don’t worry, nothing has passed us for ages, it’s almost dark, if 6 vehicles pass us by the time we leave tomorrow morning I will be amazed”. That should do the trick, that will calm her down I though, but within 5 minutes 7 vehicles had passed!


It was a cold damp night, we were away reasonably early, the road continued climbing, the road continued to be gravel. We knew we had a lot of climbing to do, it was going to be another slow day. It took us about an hour to cover the first 7km, all up hill on gravel, but we had at least resigned ourselves to the fact that it would be gravel all the way through to Raetihi, then all of a sudden we turned a bend and could hardly believe what we saw in front of us….tarmac. The whole time we had been on a single track road, the last 30k had been on gravel but now it was sealed and what is more it had two wide lanes and no traffic. I suspect it was wide to that point to cater for the logging trucks that we kept seeing signs for, not that we saw any evidence of them. After a bit more climbing we turned another bend to be presented with an amazing vista complete with a snow capped volcano, wonderful stuff. The rolling road took us to Raetihi where we changed our plans again. We had long ago decided we would never make it to Turangi, so had planned to reach National Park, but with the improved road we decided to aim for half way between where there were apparently some log cabins we could stay in. We were back on a quiet main road, still climbing gently, a long straight ahead of us with just odd vehicles passing us when a police car pulled up alongside “It’s probably not advisable to cycle side by side here aye” he said “Don’t worry I am keeping an eye on the traffic” I told him and off he went. We stopped for lunch at a little roadside shelter next to an old farm, the shelter was made from odd bits of railroad kit. Before long we were joined by the owner, quite a character. He was retired though looked very young to me, he told us of his house in Australia, a yacht at Auckland, his small fleet of 6 or 7 Series 1 Land Rovers, and the yacht just behind us. This yacht had a bit of history, it had apparently been around the world twice and had been used to bring in 2 Frenchman to Auckland who were involved in sabotaging the Rainbow Warrior. The road through to National Park was pretty easy going, we reached there by about 15:20. According to my map it was another 21km to where we were aiming for. The road continued to head slightly upwards topping out at 910m with a couple of nice Volcanoes to look at, one of which was disappearing under a blanket if cloud. There was a spare mountain too, Tongariro, and the main reason we would be stopping for a day, a day off the bikes and on foot up the mountain. It was very popular walking country, confirmed by every other vehicle being shuttle buses for the walkers. Christine was ready to finish, she had had enough, for her it just seemed to drag on, not helped by my new map as it turned out to be 25k and not 21. The only other section of the map we had used was also way out, another map not to be trusted.


So the following morning we too were waiting at 7am for one of those shuttle buses to take us to the start of the walk, the Tongariro Crossing, a walk across the Tongariro National Park. I had wanted to at least do a little walking here in New Zealand and it is supposed to be the best one day walk and one of the best one day walks in the world. I had also been inspired by Jackie to do this one. You may have seen Jacs comments on this blog, she was here last year but was not able to do the walk due to bad weather. If my crap memory serves me correctly she waited about 3 days and still the weather didn’t improve. So little me thought that if a keen walker thought it worth waiting 3 days to try and do the walk then it must be a good one. We were alarmed by the arrival of a big bus, and what is more it was full, we were even more alarmed by being told to get on the bus behind, also full, standing room only. This really set the theme for the day. We were one of the first to set off, but we walked nice and leisurely so before long we were being overtaken, people came past in a never ending flow. Every now and then we stopped to let everybody past so we could walk and talk in peace, though in reality it was just a constant flow, rather like the mass of people that head up Ben Nevis. To make matters worse the path had been cleared all of the way and in places there were sections of board walks. We reached the Devils Staircase, and that is exactly what it was, a staircase, lots and lots of steps. I have to say though that the scenery was spectacular with a lovely clear view of the active volcanoes (photo). We went off on one of the quieter side tracks for lunch with a fantastic 360 degree view, half of which was above the clouds. The toughest part of the walk came next, heading down a scree slope to the emerald lakes at the bottom. We had taken eggs for lunch, had they gone off or was I just farting? We soon realised it was the sulphur emissions for the surface of the mountain, poo….what a smell! After the first steep bit heading down was much gentler though less spectacular as we dipped into the cloud, then out the other side. There was still a constant flow of people. We took about 6 ½ hours to complete the 19km walk with about 1000m of ascent and at no time had there ever been a gap in the flow of people that would have been long enough to have a discreet pee. As we arrived at the car park our bus was just starting to move, we got on and before we could sit down we were off, perfect timing. So Jacs, a fantastic walk, but if you are not one for hoards of people then you shouldn’t be too sorry to have missed it, it took the edge off it for us. And another thing, why do people seem to want photos of themselves jumping in the air. A Frenchman asked me to take a photo of him as he leapt across in front of me, he set the camera up as he wanted and I took the shots, “You jumped too high” I told him, but when he looked at the results his torso was missing, I had only caught his legs “Oh no, that’s great” he told me….it takes all sorts!


We were away reasonably early the following morning but not before we had consumed an enormous bowl of porridge. We had cooked in the kitchen using their pans, it was deceptively much bigger than my camp pots, so we rather over did it, but don’t worry, none went to waste I can assure you. We were thanking our lucky stars that we had completed the walk the previous day, it was now very overcast. Now, I can cycle day in day out without my legs ever hurting me, but after just one days walking they are feeling very fragile, especially the calves, I had to go uphill very gently, no getting out of the saddle, oh no. We descended down to Turangi were did had a quick supermarket stop. Once outside again Christine was piling a load of sweets onto my bar bag, she had just bought a 1kg of mixed sweets, “That’s enough, that’s enough! I can‘t eat all those” I told her, but then felt a bit silly when she said “It’s ok they are for both of us”. It took me just a couple of minutes to load the food into my panniers, then when I looked around I couldn’t believe my eyes, “Where have all the sweets gone, you have even eaten the one I had bitten in half!”, all I got back was “Well, it’s not my fault if you don’t eat fast enough”. The white chocolate problem seems to be mainly cured having nominated myself as the “chocolate monitor”. Now there are only the odd problems when I leave it around by mistake and come back to find a screwed up wrapper. We rode alongside Lake Taupo and stopped off at a little plain looking church with a small Marae outside, but inside we were in for a surprise, it was an absolute delight, beautifully decorated in Maori style with wall panels and patterned painting. Outside was the graveyard, it was another surprise and really interesting. Lying on top of the grave were articles from the persons life, everyday items such as watches, hats and unopened bottles of beer. There was even a child’s grave covered in toys. We made good progress, I guess we had a bit of a tailwind. We passed through Taupo where there were no end of motels, it felt like a holiday resort, probably for slightly older clientele. Christine is a bit of a worrier at times. She was amazed at all the motels but became really concerned when I told her there would be even more in Rotorua, “How on earth are we going to find a place to stay?” she asked, “Well they surely wont all be full” I told her. I knew that is not what she meant, but she is the first person I have travelled with that worries that there is too much of a selection and we wont be able to decide. We carried on towards Broadlands on the back road, though it was still pretty busy. We made our way of down a side road only to find houses and little farms, but as time was running out we ended up camping without permission on a bit of farmland that seemed to be a holding area for cattle prior to being loaded onto trucks.


The following morning it rained. We had been aiming for an early start, but delayed it as long as possible. As soon as the rain stopped we packed up and were on the move by 08:30, but this morning the legs were hurting even more from our little one day hike! We didn’t get far before it started raining again. The first stop was after about an hour at Butcher’s Pool, a natural hot spring. There was nobody about so we decided to have a skinny dip. We had only been there about 15 minutes when a mini bus turned up, from Taupo school….great! Thankfully only five adults piled out and were soon in the pool, but we didn’t want to stay there too long, there was no other option but to bare my fat arse to the world. It was still raining when we set off again, though we were still well warmed through from the thermal pool, it gave me a wonderful warm feeling as I cycled along for about an hour. It felt really strange to be cycling along in cold rain yet feel so warm, wonderful. The next stop was the thermal wonderland of Wai-O-Tapo, probably the most popular thermal reserve in the area. It started to rain even harder as we arrived, but it did have the opposite effect to what we had experienced on the walk a couple of days ago, the place was deserted. We wandered around past sulphur caves, hot pools of all sort of colours, large green lakes and the highlight of the Champagne Pool (photo). The Devil’s Pool right as the end was an unbelievable shade of green, it looked more like paint. Just after we set off we called it at some mud pools, these were just great to watch as the stuff glooped and bubbled away squirting mud all around. Back on the main road we still had the rain, though now we had logging lorries that came way too close for comfort through a section of road works. The last 10k into Rotorua were down a nice gradual descent, a great finish to the day. As we headed into town every building was a motel, so we waited until we were close to the centre, then we pulled off down a side street. From there we split up and checked out the places in pairs. Having checked about 10 we made our decision, though as soon as we were in Christine was very uncomfortable with the noise level despite us being on a side street, though she never complained and lived with it very well. My first job to do on arrival was check out the Norwich result, we lost 3-2 away to Ipswich, so with just 2 games to go we are still in the bottom 3 and staring at relegation. Christine’s first job was to head out to the supermarket and buy the food for dinner, she cooked up wonderful 3 course dinner, even better than the first class food she prepares on the camp stove.


Rotorua is a reasonable place to wander around. Today has been fantastic weather despite it forecast to rain. We visited the old spa baths that in their day would have been at the luxury end of the market, though looking around the place and at the old photos they looked more like torture rooms.


I have just discovered that the last few uploads of photos from Australia didn’t complete the process properly and haven’t been on display, so if you are at a loss, there are about another 130 photos there covering Melbourne to Adelaide heading along the Great Ocean Road.

Day 689 - Wellington (North Island)

First of all, Happy Easter to you all. Secondly, I have good news for you, I think this is going to be a fairly short entry, you will only need half a cup of coffee!


The main reason for being in Hanmer Springs was for the thermal pools. I went there with Christine in the evening after she had spent some time there during the afternoon on her own. They also had a water slide there with nobody using it. I decided to have a go, I had never been down one before, but Christine said she would wait in the water just in case I needed any assistance. I have to admit it was good fun, apart from being dumped in the water at the end of it. In fact it was so good that I had another run down. We then went into the thermal pools starting off at one that was at 33 degrees, then changing to others that were a degree or two warmer until we went into the hottest at 41 degrees. All very nice and relaxing, until a coach load of kids arrived!


It seemed to be raining all night whilst we were in Hanmer Springs, it was still raining pretty hard in the morning, the weather had really closed in and there was no sign of the mountains. We had a long leisurely breakfast deciding whether to go or stay another day. The temperature had dropped dramatically too, if we went and got wet we would also get very cold. Before we had made a decision the clouds cleared revealing the mountains behind, but now they were covered in a layer of snow. Eventually we decided to make a move, though we didn’t get away until gone 11am. The route was pretty easy going, the road winding its way through the valleys, I think we even had a slight tail wind. As we rode along the weather just seemed to get better and better, we had made the right decision. Having passed through Rotherham, which incidentally is slightly smaller than the one at home, I think I remember seeing a couple of houses, we reached the village of Waiau. We stopped for a short break, I could hardly believe that we had already covered 47k, we had been flying along. From there we took the back road towards Kaikoura which went past the ski resort of Mt Lyford and that only meant one thing, it was going uphill, complete with a full load of water for the night. As the afternoon wore on the weather started to deteriorate, it even started to drizzle. We passed some lovely looking sheltered pine trees and Christine suggested camping in amongst them for the night, though I persuaded her to carry on a little longer. Typically, the further we went the less chance there seemed to be of anywhere to camp until we eventually found a track heading steeply downhill to a gate. Just inside the gate was a lovely place to camp but just in view of the road, not that there was going to any traffic overnight. The track then went through a stream and into the woods. I really didn’t fancy getting across the stream, but Christine wanted to be out of view of the road. With a parting shot of “Watch this experienced around New Zealand cyclist cross this stream” she set off. Just a few seconds later the experienced around New Zealand cyclist was shouting out “Oh S-H-I-T!!!” as the bike sank into the mud the other side, stopping her dead and resulting in a foot completely underwater, not the most desirable of things when it is cold and already getting colder. “…..and don’t say a fucking word” she added. As if I would, it was more than my life was worth! Having checked out the camping possibilities on the other side she convinced me it was worth it, so I changed into flip-flops and paddled across, though I to sank in the mud losing a flip-flop in the process, though after a bit of squishing around in the mud I managed to retrieve it. There was a short climb up a track, though it turned out to be a really sticky clay surface, most of which stuck to the tyres stopping the wheels from turning. Christine apologised for taking us across the river, though I had agreed pretty easily to it, so it wasn’t really her fault. Thankfully by the time we had set up camp it had stopped raining and we were able to cook outside, though with the dropping temperature we were soon getting pretty cold.


It rained pretty well all night, though having got the ground sheet sorted out it remained nice and dry inside, though still somewhat cold. When I looked outside the tent I could hardly believe my eyes, we had camped well below the snowline, but the snowline had come down to meet us. It was still snowing and settling quickly. The last couple of days had started with bad weather, so thinking there might be some pattern to the weather we decided to delay the start as long as possible, thankfully it was to pay off. Over breakfast Christine told me “You have to promise one thing, that you go a little slower down the hills in these conditions”, bless her. By 10am it was beginning to clear up, most of the snow had already thawed. The worst part of the day lay just ahead of us, getting back to the road. Having retraced our way back down the track made even tackier by the night’s rain, I was once again standing in flip-flops in the stream and passing the bikes and gear across. Once the worst of the mud was cleared off the bikes, it was just a case of hauling the bikes back up the steep hill to rejoin the road. We eventually started cycling at around 11:30, the weather seemed to be getting worse again as we made our way slowly down the roller coaster of a road. At times the road dipped sharply into valleys then climbed sharply back out again. As we started to drop towards another river crossing Christine was just behind me, by the time I had climbed out the other side she was nowhere to be seen, even though I could see a long way back. I assumed she had stopped for a snack, after all, if she is awake she is generally hungry. I waited and eventually she came into view and within a few of minutes she arrived saying “Either you are deaf or you are a complete arsehole” she said “Oh, that’s a tough one, being as I don’t know what you are talking about, it could go either way” I replied. It turned out that she had a coming together with the road whilst making a sharp turn, thankfully at slow speed, so no damage done. Interestingly, when she fails to turn up I assume she has stopped to tuck in to a little more food, though when I don’t turn up she assumes I have had an accident. Just before we reached Kaikoura we rejoined the main road. That came as a bit of a shock, the first real main road that we have been on since just after Dunedin. Kaikoura was as splendid as I remembered it from my last visit, the view across the sea to the snow covered range of mountains is something very special (photo). Finding somewhere to camp was once again challenging, though this time as we were in farmland, though we eventually found an unused field tucked away down a little gravel road. As day turned to night the sky cleared, giving a lovely cold, crisp evening with a wonderful full moon,. Due to the cold and a late finish we ended up cooking in the tent.


The following day started as the previous one had ended, clear skies giving a crisp morning with not a cloud in the sky. We were 3 km away from the sea yet we could still here the waves. I could understand why when we saw them, they were big and in abundance. Ahead of us lay the busy but fantastically beautiful road up the east coast to Blenheim (photo). To start with the road hugged the coastline, the snow covered mountains as a backdrop and the lovely smell of the sea. We stopped at Opau Point where Christine could hardly believe her eyes “You will have to pinch me” she said as she was seeing seals in the wild for the very first time. The colony here is literally right beside the main road. The road remained fantastic for the rest of the day but changed from mountains to rolling hills then changing dramatically again in the Marlborough Wine Region. Here the road headed inland and at Seddon we decided that we needed to find a place to camp for the night. Finding a place wasn’t easy, though a woman in a vehicle with a trailer asked us if we needed a lift to Blenheim where there would be a campsite. We thanked her but declined the offer. We took a little road away from the main road and eventually had to call in at a farm to ask permission to camp. At the first place we tried the doors were all open but there didn’t seem to be anybody there, though thankfully at the second one we tried they were happy for us to camp in a sheep paddock, a lovely little campsite overlooking the vineyards and the mountains, the only downside being the sheep poo everywhere. As we prepared dinner the woman from the house came over and brought us a bottle of white wine and 2 glasses. They work in the wine industry and gave us a bottle of wine that they produced themselves, it was delicious and went down very well, a really nice gesture. It was another lovely crystal clear night, though this time much warmer.


We made an earlier start in the morning, though not before we had taken back the glasses and given them our prized large bar of chocolate, about the only thing that we could give to them but an ideal gift as it was Easter. The run to Blenheim was easy going once we had crossed the Weld Pass. In town Christine was once again obsessed about going into the info office “I want to check the times of the ferries” she said “What for?” I asked “Once we get to Picton we get on the next ferry, what do we need the times for?” She had done the right thing though, apparently tickets bought at info offices were $20 cheaper than buying them at the terminal. From Blenheim to Picton was easy going, or should have been if we had not been into a head wind that had been building up. Still, we made it with a good half an hour to spare. After a nice calm crossing we went in search of a motel, though we cycled around for ages before we could even found one. Finding a place to stay in the middle of the Easter weekend was going to be challenge, though the second place had room, though more expensive than elsewhere we had been in New Zealand. We took it, we could search a heck of a lot longer and find nothing. Once unpacked Christine volunteered to go to the supermarket and do the shopping, then when she came back she cooked up a wonderful 3 course dinner, and what’s more she even enjoyed doing it. I am spoilt rotten!


And so to Easter Sunday, a day of no Easter eggs, they were too expensive! It’s been a gloriously warm day just wandering around the city, the snow of a few days back seems far off now. Most of the time has been spent around the harbour front and the Te Papa Museum, a museum of all things New Zealand (photo). We went along to have a look at the St Paul’s Cathedral, it’s remarkably modern, Art Deco in style and it rather reminded me of Guildford Cathedral. From there is was just a short walk to another church, Old St Paul’s and a bigger contrast would be almost impossible to achieve. This one was wooden, much smaller and a really delightful and cosy church, it had a real charm about it. I then went back to the cathedral and joined the ringers for ringing prior to the evening service. They have a massive ringing chamber complete with a lift to it, and a bunch of very good ringers to ring them, though tonight I was their weakest link. We rang for an hour, never ringing the same thing twice, all good ringing on fantastic bells. The only thing wrong was that if I had joined them this morning I would also have been able to ring at Old St Paul’s. If I had know it was such a beautiful little church I would have made a bit more effort….never mind.